


Making an Effort

by misura



Category: Seiyou Kottou Yougashiten | Antique Bakery
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-31
Updated: 2011-07-31
Packaged: 2017-10-22 00:46:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/231792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein Tachibana valiantly tries not to make an effort and almost succeeds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Making an Effort

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dorothy_notgale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dorothy_notgale/gifts).



The thing about Tachibana is: he always makes an effort.

Not during the part where he falls in love, of course - that just happens, naturally ( _magically_ , Chikage would say, and whenever it's just happened Tachibana might almost agree with him), but during the part that comes after, it's all about _making an effort_.

It's not so much that Tachibana feels love requires that kind of thing; it's more that he feels that anything of value is worth making an effort for, and while running a successful business may be nice, what's the point of it all, really, if all you get out of it is a larger number on your account overview?

Love is different. Love isn't like running a business.

Tachibana is _good_ (or, if he says so himself, pretty damn _brilliant_ ) at running a business.

 

"What do you think?" Ono asked, looking tired and halfway in between 'nervous' and 'satisfied'.

Tachibana was thinking several things, such as _'are we going to lose any customers because we closed the store today - or rather, because I allowed Ono to take a day off to make his (unfairly cute) sister a wedding cake?'_ (answer: probably not) and _'so this guy she's going to marry - is he better-looking than me?'_ (answer, again: probably not).

It was what happened when he hadn't got anything to do except stand around: he started thinking.

"Looks okay to me." Not crooked or anything. A solid product Tachibana felt he could sell with confidence. (He wasn't one of those scumbag, used-and-useless-car salesmen they warned people about on on TV sometimes; he'd got that much pride, at least.)

Ono chuckled, his expression slipping into the territory of 'nervous'. "I suppose I should know better by now than to ask for your opinion." Which was at least slightly unfair, since Tachibana had got plenty opinions he wasn't the least bit shy about sharing.

Tachibana studied the wedding cake some more, trying to forget the past five hours he'd spent watching Ono put it together. "Looks good." Tasted like sugar, probably.

Another chuckle, although Ono did look a little less nervous.

 

The thing about Ono is: he never makes an effort.

His entire life, he's been falling in and out of love (or lust; he can be that honest with himself, at least) with people (or rather: men), and only very rarely, he's ever actually spent much of an effort on making that other person fall along with him. It always simply _happened_.

If Ono takes it for granted that in any sort of relationship he enters into, the effort is made by the other side, it's only a matter of habit. It's what he's gotten used to, and yes, it's also rather convenient.

Even that thing with Chikage wasn't - well, Ono thought it _might_ , for a while, but then it didn't, or it stopped, and even if he thinks sometimes that it might have been nice, the more realistic (more cynical, perhaps) part of him knows it really wouldn't have ended all that differently from any of his previous relationships. It's just not how things work.

 

"Look," Tachibana said, "it bothers me, all right?"

'It' being, Ono knew, the idea that Tachibana and Ono were a (married) male couple - or possibly, to give Tachibana the credit he deserved, the idea that _other people thought_ that Tachibana and Ono were a (married) male couple.

Ono supposed that if Tachibana were a woman (horrible thought), it might bother him to be mistaken for Tachibana's boyfriend - although it would have more to do with the fact that he was emphatically not straight than with the fact that he was gay.

.... Or something along those lines. The point was: he _got_ it. He understood that Tachibana not wanting people to mistake him and Ono for a (married) male couple didn't equal Tachibana calling Ono a homo and telling him to _hurry up and die_.

"It's just for the customers," Ono said, because that argument always played well with Tachibana. "And not even all of them."

"It's - " Tachibana started, then grimaced. _I'm so grossed out it makes me want to puke!_

Ono realized that if Tachibana'd actually tell him that, now, it would hurt worse than before. Because they were both adults now. Because Ono hadn't been quietly pining after Tachibana for years.

"It's false advertising," Tachibana said.

"We're selling cakes," Ono said. What he thought was: _'so it would be all right if we actually_ were _a (married) male couple?'_.

Tachibana shook his head. "That's not the point. You can't sell a successful product by telling people something that's not true."

"It's not like we're _lying_ to people." _'So it would be all right if we actually_ were _a (married) male couple? Really?'_

"Lying by implication is still lying,"

 _'I suppose ... well, he_ is _my type.'_

"You're right," Ono said, slightly bowing his head. "I'm sorry."

Tachibana nodded, looking mollified and possibly slightly embarrassed. "So, about those new cakes - "

 

The thing about Tachibana is: every girlfriend he's ever had left him.

None of them told him it was his fault. In fact, most of them rather stressed the fact that it _wasn't_ his fault, that he'd always been kind, attentive, good with his once future in-laws ... _great_ in bed.

 

"I just don't understand women, Homna."

"Who does?" (said by a man getting married, _married!_ very shortly, Tachibana felt this comment to be at least slightly misplaced)

"I mean, 'trying too hard'? What does that mean?"

" 'Try less hard next time'?" Homna shrugged and sipped his drink. "Just a lawyer's interpretation."

"Ha!" Tachibana's own glass was empty again. "I'm supposed to ... do nothing?"

"Not nothing, I think," Honma said. "Just ... the right amount."

"Like baking a cake. Love is like baking a cake, huh?"

Honma reached for Tachibana's empty glass. "Hey, now."

"I could have been a lawyer. I'm a really good bussinessman. I'm great at selling cakes. But there's one thing I'm really no good at. Do you know what that is? Huh? Do you?"

"You could learn," Ono said, still nursing his first glass of something-or-another - Tachibana had ordered the first round, and Ono had considered it the better part of wisdom to not ask.

"Shut up," Tachibana said. "Not like _you're_ getting married in two weeks." A moment's consideration. "You aren't, are you?"

"I bet you're popular with the ladies, though," Honma said. "Just like Tachibana."

 

The thing about Ono is: he's not used to unrequited love anymore.

What he's used to is quick and easy and over in a matter of weeks, if not hours.

 

"You didn't tell Honma you were gay." A statement, rather than a question, but Ono felt that was mostly out of politeness. Nobody would ever be able to fault Tachibana's manners.

Ono shrugged. "It didn't seem the right moment."

"He's not going to mind, you know. He's not that kind of guy," Tachibana said.

There was something slightly surreal and ironic about this conversation, Ono decided. "How would you know? Really, Tachibana? How would you know he wouldn't mind?"

"You left early last night," Tachibana said, turning to straighten a menu just so. "We talked a bit, after."

Ono's acquaintance with closets had mostly consisted of accidentally dragging other people out of them. Or, if not accidentally, then at least not on purpose. He'd never made much of an effort at discretion, true, but that had mostly been a matter of being careless. He'd never gone out of his way to expose a person as gay. "You told him?"

"Not about you," Tachibana said. "That's your call."

"Oh," Ono said. "I see. So it was more of a hypothetical discussion, then."

 

Another thing about Ono is: he's not used to subtlety anymore, either, if he ever was, at least not when it comes to people. He's not used to people dropping hints, as (in his experience) most people find it much more easier to drop _themselves_ on you instead.

He's gotten used to stepping out of the way of people he doesn't really care for. He supposes he could try to be subtle about _that_ , but why complicate something that's really very simple?

 

"I think we should get married," Tachibana said.

Ono came perilously close to dropping a plate of perfectly turned out brioches.

"It will be good for taxes, and the customers will like it," Tachibana said as calmly as if they were discussing replacing the furniture - or more calmly, actually, since the furniture was an important part of the store (according to Tachibana). "Some of them might not, but to many people, a married couple will be less offensive than two people they suspect of sleeping together, regardless of gender."

Ono rather doubted that last bit was actually true.

"I will admit that ensuring your staying with the store is a consideration," Tachibana said. "However, I feel that you would benefit from the arrangement as well."

"You - what about, well, sex?" Ono thought they'd had this conversation already, even if the word 'marriage' hadn't been used back then. He'd assured Tachibana he was over him (as Ono had been) and that had been that.

"I've never had any complaints." Tachibana didn't look the least bit smug.

"Oh," Ono said, a little weakly. It wasn't as if _he_ had had any complaints - not about the sex part of a relationship, anyway, but to be able to say so with a perfectly straight face was ... well.

Confidence was an attractive quality in a man, if usually one that Ono saw when he looked at a mirror, rather than at a conquest-to-be.

"That's not really the point, though," Tachibana said. "Marriage is about commitment and, in our case, making a solid business decision."

 _I'm so grossed out it makes me want to puke!_

"A true romantic," Ono said. He probably shouldn't even consider saying 'yes'.

Tachibana scowled. "I'm trying really hard not to make an effort here! The least you could do is appreciate it. At the very least, you could look at the contract I had the family lawyers draw up."

"All right," Ono said.

"Great." Tachibana started browsing through a briefcase. "I've got it here somewhere - there's a few things that are really non-negotiable, but most of the rest is open for discussion."

"I didn't mean the contract," Ono said.


End file.
